RGC suffer late defeat at league leaders Aberavon

Reporter:

Dean Jones

Sunday 26 February 2017 13:32

RGC were left rueing a number of handling errors as they fell to a late 28-14 defeat at Principality Premiership leaders Aberavon.

Two tries in the final ten minutes condemned the Gogs to just their fourth defeat in their debut top flight season, and they will look to get back to winning ways when they host Llandovery in the WRU National Cup quarter final at Parc Eirias on Saturday (2.30pm).

The visitors drew first blood after a strong start when skipper Maredydd Francis picked the ball up and barged over to score under the posts. Jacob Botica kicked the simple conversion.

Francis received a yellow card soon after for an infringement, and Aber reduced the deficit courtesy of a Steff Williams penalty.

The away side were dealt another blow when Jacob Botica was forced off, and things went from bad-to-worse when Rydal Penrhos pupil and Wales U18 squad member Dan Owen came on for the injured Will Bryan.

Williams added a pair of penalties before the break to ensure the home side went into the break with a slender advantage, and they scored their first try of the afternoon shortly after the restart when Mathew Jarvis broke two tackles to touch down.

This provoked a strong response from the Gogs, who got back into the game midway through the half courtesy of a Huw Worthington score, with Afon Bagshaw, who was playing his 100th competitive game, kicking the conversion.

Substitute Joe Simpson was the latest to be sent to the sin bin for the visitors, and Aber made their numerical advantage count on 70 minutes when Ben Davies produced a fine run to cross the white wash.

The Wizards sealed the win against a tiring RGC side soon after when Williams rounded off an impressive individual display with a score and conversion.